Regional History

On The holiest day of the Jewish year, a surprise joint attack by Egypt and Syria crossing the cease-fire lines in the Sinai and Golan Heights threatened the very existence of the Jewish state. 2,586 Israeli soldiers were killed and thousands more wounded.

The Yom-Kippur War began on October 6, 1973 when the combined armies of Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in the Suez Canal area and the Golan Heights. On October 22, the Security Council adopted Resolution 338 calling for "all parties to the present fighting to cease all firing and terminate all military activity immediately."

Rosh Hashanah is celebrated as the Jewish New Year. However, the term "Rosh Hashanah" does not actually appear in the Torah, but rather is referred to as the Feast of Trumpets, known as "Zikhron Teru'ah" in Leviticus 23:24 - "a memorial with the blowing of horns". It is also referred to in the same part of Leviticus as a penultimate Sabbath or meditative rest day, and a "holy day to God". It is the first of the High Holy Days ("Days of Awe") which usually occur in the early autumn of the Northern Hemisphere and consist of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). The trumpets are meant to serve as a wakeup call, to bring the people to prayer and repentance in preparation for the coming Day of Atonement.

In 1940 and 1941 there were a number of air-raids on Haifa and Tel-Aviv by the Italian air-force. On September, 1940, a residential neighborhood in Tel Aviv was targeted by the Italian planes, resulting in the deaths of over a hundred people.

Israel Tal (September 13, 1924 – September 8, 2010), also known as Talik, was an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general known for his knowledge of tank warfare and for leading the development of Israel's Merkava tank.

The Munich massacre occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually murdered by Black September, a group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization.

The Hebron Massacre refers to the mass murder of 67 Jews on 23 and 24 August 1929 in Hebron, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine, by Arabs incited to violence by false rumors that Jews were massacring Arabs in Jerusalem and seizing control of Muslim Holy Places.

El Al Flight 402, was an international passenger flight from Vienna, Austria to Tel Aviv, Israel via Istanbul, Turkey, on July 27, 1955, which strayed into Bulgarian airspace and was shot down by two Bulgarian MiG-15 jet fighters and crashed near Petrich, Bulgaria. All 7 crew and 51 passengers on board the airliner were killed.

Instead of constantly defending ourselves, we should flood the United Nations' institutions with complaints, reports and information about the destruction taking place in our region.

On the fifth year of the Middle Eastern destruction, which is going to last for decades, it's time to determine that the United Nations has become irrelevant here, except in regards to one country, which is the last remnant of the old regional order – Israel. Can the UN do anything in Syria? In Iraq? In Yemen? In Saudi Arabia? In Egypt? In Libya? That's why it focuses on Israel.

On the anniversary of Israel's air strike that destroyed Saddam Husein's nuclear reactor near Baghdad on June 7th, 1981 and against the background of former Mossad Chief Meir Dagen's warning that Israel should not attack Iran's nuclear weapons sites today, IsraCast presents a report broadcast shortly after the Israeli preventative attack on Iraq.

A war-torn nation now split between the Iraqi government, ISIS controlled areas, and the Kurdish region of the north, Iraq is certainly no safe land for anyone, let alone the small ethno-religious minorities that once thrived there for centuries. It's hard to imagine now, but Iraq was once home to a large Jewish population of over 150,000 souls, one of the longest surviving and most historically significant of Jewish communities in the Diaspora. As of 2008, there were less than ten Jews counted still living in Iraq, and the number today may very well have dwindled to none.

David Rubinger was an Israeli photographer and photojournalist. Nicknamed by Shimon Peres "the photographer of the nation in the making", he spent his professional career chronicling the story of the nation of Israel, and is perhaps most remembered by his famous photograph of three Israeli paratroopers at the Western Wall just 20 minutes following the recapture of the Western Wall and the decisive Israeli victory of the Six-Day War. The picture went on to become an iconic image to Israel's national narrative, inspiring national pride and Zionism. Because of the strong emotions it invoked, in 2001 Israeli Supreme Court Justice Misha'el Kheshin declared that the photo had "become the property of the entire nation."

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The IsraCast guide to information on the Yom Kippur War of 1973: Access to live recordings from the war, exclusive post-war recording of Arik Sharon discussing his part, historical facts you may not have known about the war and its many complexities, insightful analysis of the war and region, and explanation of the Yom Kippur - the holiest day in the Jewish Year.

During the war, a portion of the recordings that Avi Yaffe recorded of the war were publicized. After hearing these recordings, Avi was approached by singer Avraham Pereira and Composer Haim Tzur to record a special set of songs written in lieu of the war in Avi's studio.

Op-ed: Imagine the Islamic Republic falling apart like Syria, Iraq, Libya or Yemen in a civil war with armed militias – and nuclear facilities all over the area.

In Independence Day, I received a message on Facebook from a man who lives in Iraq and wanted to congratulate the State of Israel on its independence and thank it for destroying Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor in 1981.

From 1950 to 1952, Operation Ezra and Nehemiah airlifted 120-130,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel via Iran and Cyprus. By 1968 only 2,000 Jews remained in Iraq. The operation is named after Ezra and Nehemiah, who led the Jewish people from exile in Babylonia to return to Israel in the 5th century BC, as recorded in the books of the Hebrew Bible that bear their names.

Israel marks the anniversary to the unification of Jerusalem. Read about the liberation of the city and the letter sent by Prime Minister Eshkol to Jordan's King Hussein stating that Israel would take no actions against him if he ceased hostile activities.